When All Songs Collide: Jimmy Durante, Meet Thom Yorke
by Bob Boilen
This week, thanks to you and perhaps the alignment of the planets, we truly earned our name.
We began the week with another installment of A Band To Call Your Own. Hundreds of you posted to our blog, telling not just me, but the entire All Songs community about the bands you hold dear to your heart -- bands that you want everyone to know about, but also secretly like to think of as your very own discovery. Thanks for opening up.
Then we posted a show I've been wanting to do for a long time: a show about today's English and Irish folk music scene. I'd met a young fiddler/mandolin player, Gus Voorhees, this summer at an Irish music camp my son and I attended called Augusta. As it turned out, Gus became my intern for two weeks, and for his school project put together a wide-reaching show that highlights some of the best musicians in modern English and Irish traditional music, including Eliza Carthy, Bellowhead, and John Doyle.
Over the past few weeks, the possibility of speaking to Radiohead's Thom Yorke looked like it might happen. We've come close before, even had him on the line, but mood and circumstance, and perhaps the stars, dashed our plans but not our hopes.
On Monday, we dialed up the BBC in Oxford and had a quite a delightful chat with Thom Yorke -- not about the business of music or the history of his band, but about the music he loves and what touches his soul. You can hear his music, his bands, and the music he chose on our show or our podcast, and feel free to comment about it here.
Then there's music about love. Last year, we invited filmmaker John Waters to pick our love songs, and in the past we've asked our audience to do that. What John Waters loves about songs of love is beautifully twisted. Hearing Doris Duke sing about "lying here on this lumpy bed" or the line about how "his sweet talking added up to street walking that was the part that finally broke my heart" was a pleasant diversion from hearing "Best of My Love" on the airwaves.
This year, we tried to get Flight of the Conchords to pick our Valentine's Day tunes.
We've been trying since the summer but keep getting turned down. I know they're busy, but I like them too much to stop trying. Lyrics like "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room" are too damn funny.
And when you're on the street
Depending on the street
I bet you are definitely in the top three
Good-looking girls on the street
Depending on the street
Love and laughter are a great combination. Maybe next year.
And so you -- our audience, our contributors -- came to our rescue, posting songs about love on this blog.
And what a list of songs, from Regina Spektor singing John Lennon's "Real Love," to Jimmy Durante singing "I'll Be Seeing You." And the stories!
I've heard from many of you over the eight years or so that Robin Hilton and I have done this show. I've met you through email and at concerts, and you are an extraordinary audience. You are insightful and thoughtful, and you show a great deal of compassion and passion.
This blog is a chance for you to discover each other, and I think as you begin to read it, you'll see what an amazing community this is. From Jimmy Durante to Thom Yorke, you're all here, and I love that.
Happy Valentines Day.
Bob Boilen
with Robin Hilton
11:13 AM ET | 02-14-2008 | permalink
